The Ties that Bind
by paperazzi
Summary: <html><head></head>Laura Kinney and Julian Keller come from opposing worlds. She is a clone, a human experiment with no life to call her own, he is the son of billionaires and one of the most powerful remaining mutants. The only thing the have in common is...an Ipod?</html>
1. Chapter 1

_A/N:So i got this story idea last night and i just had to put it up. The pairing is Helix and its AU but mostly follows 616 with some notable changes. Much thanks to Onelildustbunni for inspiring me to write a Helix story of my own with all of her awesome ones. Hope it turns out well!_

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><p><strong>Chapter 1<strong>

**Accomplice to Clone-napping**

A green glow cast from the eyes of a young man on a fisher's wharf. Rain poured in waves off his designer umbrella and he cursed under his breath about his last good pair of shoes getting soaked in the downpour. He was tall and handsome, with dark hair and a smug smile was usually plastered to his chiseled features.

This evening however, in this thunderstorm turned his smile into a ugly scowl. His traveling partner, if he could be called that, wasn't happy about the inclement weather either, but for entirely different reasons. James 'Logan' Howlett didn't much care that his old, leather coat was getting soaked. He didn't mind that his unruly hair was matted to his face in large, dripping clumps. No, he was mad because he'd lost her scent. Again.

Stupid rain.

"I was _sure_ she was here. Dammit. We're going to have to start over, kid. We'll head back into town."

Julian Keller wasn't in a mood to complain about such a development. "So...we can go home now?"

Wolverine just smirked at him. "Ain't your real home somewhere in Hollywood? You've got about four thousand dollars worth of clothes on, and not even _Charles_ dresses that fancy."

The boy was miffed, but definitely not as perturbed as Logan had tried to make him.

"I can't help looking good," Julian shot back. "And I'm sure if you put your clothes up for sale you'd get much more than four thousand from some _antique collector_."

Wolverine almost laughed at the jibe. His coat was nearly twenty years old, wasn't it?

_Maybe its time to get a new one,_ he thought, tugging at the sleeve.

"I'll do that," he said, turning to walk back to dry land and the waiting X-van. "Right after you sell your _parasol_."

That got him. Julian looked up at the umbrella, annoyed as hell that he'd used such an…effeminate word to describe it. He grumbled under his breath the entire way back to the van, not caring if Wolverine's enhanced hearing could pick up every syllable. He didn't put it away though. Better to be called effeminate than to get all his clothes wet. He had been cut off from his well-to-do family's fortune a summer ago and he had no idea if or when he'd be allowed to access a bank account with more than forty-six dollars again.

Logan slammed his door shut as Julian climbed in and they started driving in silence. Neither was particularly inclined to start up idle chat with the other, and that was fine with both of them. Logan had never been someone impressed by Julian's constant antics and bluster and Julian was actually downright afraid to say something offensive to Logan. He'd seen the headmaster Scott Summers visibly shaken after he'd offended Wolverine and he put claws on either side of his neck so fast that he hadn't had time to reach his hand up to his visor.

Of course it hadn't lasted long. Unflappable. That was Cyclops, and Julian idolized him for it, just as he admired Emma Frost for her cold efficiency. Logan wasn't so much idolized as he was terrifying.

"If I'm right, she's nowhere near here," Logan said, finally breaking the silence. They had been driving for hours.

"Um, where exactly is here anyway, and why again, is it so important to rescue 'her'? You still haven't explained exactly who 'she' is." Indeed, Julian had been roped into this mission (though Scott refused to call it such, lest he pad Hellion's ego) without any knowledge whatsoever, just a gruff acknowledgement that Wolverine might need his "green brain juice."

"Need to know, kid, need to know," Wolverine finally replied. It had become his standard answer in the last few days and even _he_ was getting tired of saying it, so he knew Julian_ had_ to be tired of hearing it.

Not that he gave a rat's ass.

He heard Julian mutter 'Ancient bastard,' under his breath, _really_ quietly.

"If you don't want me to hear what you're saying, don't talk at all," Logan said through gritted teeth, his knuckles turning white from gripping the steering wheel. It would be so easy to kill the arrogant little prick. And say it was Magneto. Or _Sabretooth_.

He glanced at him and saw only the infuriatingly arrogant smirk on his face. _Three days_ of this now. Didn't he have any other expressions?

"I did want you to hear," Julian retorted, chuckling to himself.

"Alright, that's it, I'm sick of your fuckin' attitude!" He reached over to redecorate the boy's face when a sudden thump from the front of the car stopped him. He slammed the brakes and his eyes went wide.

"Oh, shit, now look what you made me do. If that was a fuckin' deer-"

But Julian ignored him as he leapt out of the car into the pouring rain once more. It was significantly less dry than even at the wharf. He left the umbrella under the seat.

They had stopped beside the highway, on a heavily forested road. Coniferous trees rose ominously to either side, casting deep shadows across the road. No moonlight pierced the thick clouds and in the downpour, only the X-van's running lights allowed him to see anything.

He looked under the passenger side of the X-van to see a small bag of some sort. A travel pack if he wasn't mistaken. Its contents were spilling across the highway, but it was too dark to discern anything other than clothing.

"Hey Logan?"

"Yeah?"

"I don't think it was a deer."

"Look UP, Keller." Logan sounded quite annoyed.

Julian looked up to the top of the van to find a young girl staring back at him, cool green eyes fixed on his and an unflinching gaze. She was balanced atop the van as if it were easy, one leg braced against the roof's utility rack and the other bent so that her knee was almost level with her head.

_She's really flexible_, Julian found himself thinking. He was glad he had a filter between his brain and his mouth, unlike some people. Mercury and Rockslide for instance. And that golden asshat Foley.

"Hey, Wolvie?" Julian called out, slightly chilled by this girl's utterly silent appraisal of her.

"_What_, Keller?" Logan sounded more than a bit upset at his choice of nicknames.

"Is this that esoteric_ her _you've been referring to for the last three days?"

"Yeah. That's Laura."

"Oh. She's kinda hot." So much for the brain filter. "But won't she get a cold without a coat in the rain like this?"

The girl, Laura, Julian reminded himself, cocked her head slightly sideways as if she were pondering something as she stared single mindedly at Julian. Her nose twitched upward slightly and she made a face at the cloudy midnight sky. Julian was acutely aware of some bit of information going completely over his head at that moment, but didn't concern himself too much with it.

"Keller?"

"Yeah?"

"Shutup."

"I said I would not go back," Laura finally said, addressing Wolverine although she'd only looked away from Julian once. Julian found that odd, since if it were up to_ him_, he'd keep his eyes on Wolverine at all times.

"Laura, it ain't a debate. Frost says there's about seven hundred mutants left in the _world_."

"I will not die." The girl had not stopped staring at Julian.

_Okay_, he thought. _Now its just creepy_.

"Leave now."

Apparently, she was addressing Julian this time. He started, realizing this. "Who me?" Then again, it didn't seem to him a bad idea, considering that Logan could kinda take care of himself. He _could _just fly home. "Okay."

He turned to go and Logan yelled, "Keller, NO!"

The X-man leapt over the front of the van, claws extending almost silently in the rain and jammed his adamantium blades in between the ones that had suddenly appeared from Laura's own fist, intercepting them right behind Julian's neck.

He turned around way too late, seeing the two of them finally looking at each other, malice in Laura's eyes and anger in Logan's.

"Holy shit!" Julian exclaimed, seeing the claws on her hands. And they even had that invincible metal. "You tried to kill me!" Then the thing that went over his head earlier circled back and smacked him soundly.

"Holy shit!" he repeated, looking frantically between the two of them. "You're like Wolverine's daughter!"

"I am not his-"

"Shutup, Laura. Keller, it took the claws for you to figure it out? Geez, Frost told me you were the smart one."

Both mutants retracted their claws and resumed normal postures, but Julian wasn't fooled. They could leap toward him so quickly from that unassuming stance his head would spin. Literally. Like spin across the ground after he was decapitated.

He backed off until he stood what he thought was a safe distance away. "So what the hell did you bring me along for?" he shouted at Logan.

"Come back over here, Keller! Dammit, I knew I shouldn't have brought you along. Fuckin' kids. 'He's the _last_ telekinetic,' she says."

Julian did not feel at all inclined to walk back 'over there.' He felt perfectly safe at twenty yards and after nearly being stabbed in the back of the neck already, he was prepared to stay there.

"What happened to getting your clothes wet?" Logan reasoned. "You left your parasol in the car."

As if in response, a bright green glow appeared over Julian's head. A telekinetic shield that functioned quite as well as an umbrella.

"Dammit," Wolverine muttered, casting about is brain for a way to resolve the situation. "Look, Laura promises not to kill you."

"I do no such-"

"Shutup, half-pint. Everybody play nice. Julian, get your ass over here, before I come get it, with or without the rest of you attached."

The threat seemed to work, though Julian was quite upset that he was within ten feet of the girl. He refused to get any closer.

"Laura, this is Julian Keller. Keller, this is Laura Kinney. I guess you could call her my daughter, but I guess she's more like my little sister."

"Aren't you like a hundred and fifty?" Julian pointed out. He'd heard that from someone around the mansion before. Kurt Wagner maybe. "She's like fifteen."

"I-" Wolverine started to protest before he realized the futility of it. "_Shutup,_ Keller. Laura's going to be coming to the mansion with us, so I can keep a closer eye on her."

Julian bit back a response about Wolverine's healing factor, not wanting to draw any more of his ire.

"I will not go," Laura said again. "I do not feel comfortable there."

"Yeah, last time it was an option," Logan replied. "This time, I can't risk Magneto getting his hands on you, or worse. You're lucky you still have your powers at all."

Laura shook her head again, this time looking down at the ground. She shuddered slightly and Julian wondered if she was crying.

"I will not go," she repeated, her voice shaking uncontrollably, her hands were balled into fists and the tips of her claws moved slowly against the skin on her knuckles.

"I will not go."

Great, Julian thought dryly. _Now there' s an invincible, homicidal maniac with metal claws and animal reflexes trying to convince his invincible teenage sister with metal claws and animal reflexes to live with me and she's hormonal. I should have brought Brian along. He might be able to permanently tag her or something._

Then he remembered the events of the previous morning. Brian had been one of the people to lose his powers in the mysterious event known only as 'M-day.' He grimaced. _Well there goes _that_ plan_.

"Laura," Wolverine was saying in his most soothing voice, putting a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

_Yeah right, Soothing,_ Julian thought. _That must be like being comforted by the devil himself._

"I know you don't like it, but give it a chance. There are new kids there, and they're your age too. You'll make friends, like Julian here." He seemed to think about that. "Okay, maybe not Julian, but don't judge everybody else by him, he's kind of a clown."

"Hey! I'm right here, ya know!"

Laura didn't look the least bit reassured. "I will not go," she said yet again. This time her voice held a definite edge. A _threat_. "Yeah, I thought it might come to this. Julian, grab her!"

"What?" the boy protested as she turned and bolted. "I'm not touching her!"

"With your _mind_, idiot!"

"Oh," he said simply, reaching out and plucking her from the ground as easily as he might a pillow. He pulled her back toward him, noting how light she was compared to Wolverine. He had lifted the older mutant once in the danger room, and it had _not_ been easy.

Laura struggled in vain against the glowing telekinetic embrace, glaring pure loathing at Julian. He gulped heavily. He knew he'd have to put her down _sometime_.

"So this is what you needed my 'green brain juice' for?" Julian asked Wolverine as he opened the back door of the van.

"Yeah. How long do you think you can hold her?"

"An hour or so if she's floating. If I can put her down, longer. Why?"

"Like back to the mansion longer?"

"Sure, if I want my head to explode!" Julian shot back. "Can _you_ use your powers for forever?"

_Snikt!_

"Wanna find out, bub?"

"Oh yeah," Julian said, now unafraid of Wolverine's threat. He was the only thing keeping the man's daughter from running off again and he would play that card until the game ended. "I forgot, your powers are all _passive_."

"So we have to tie her up," Logan mumbled, ignoring Hellion's jibes. "Dammit, Laura, why couldn't you make this easy? You should have just come back when I called you."

Laura said nothing, unable to move her neck to look away.

"Keller, put her arms behind her back."

Julian obeyed, hoping he wasn't really becoming an accomplice to kidnapping. His family council would have hell trying to sort that out.

Wolverine grabbed a length of chain from the back of the van and cut it short with his claws before tying her arms together behind her.

Julian sat her in the backseat as comfortably as he could as Logan bound her feet and climbed back into the truck, the three of them all sopping wet.

"If I get a cold…" Julian muttered, running his hand through his hair and shaking out some of the excess water.

"This is for your own good Laura," Logan was saying to the girl as he pulled away and made a U-turn on the empty highway. The dull thud of the windshield wipers as they swung back and forth was his only response.

"Hey," Julian said, trying his luck with the girl. "The mansion really isn't that bad. And I didn't want to do all this, you know. Logan made me, so no hard feelings, right? Cool."

She looked at him coolly and the anger in her eyes died, giving way to a more familiar and comfortable look. Julian turned back around, smiling. He really had a way with the ladies, didn't he?

"I will kill you when you release me."

"LAURA!"

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><p><em>AN: That's chapter one! more coming soon! i DO enjoy writing Helix! its so...fun!_


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: So i'm really glad you guys liked the first chapter! I got some great feedback and i hope i can live up to all of your expectations! (yikes) anyways, for all my SS readers too, there's another chapter in the pipeline, i haven't forgotten. Enjoy! and review if the mood strikes you!

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><p><strong>Chapter 2<strong>

**Sharing the Treasure**

Julian strained against the migraine headache that was slowly intensifying in his brain. It was nearly morning and they were nearly at the Xavier Institute, only half an hour or so out. Logan's speeding was mostly the cause of this and mostly at Julian's urging since he knew he'd overexert himself trying to hold Laura much longer. It was still the longest sustained use of his powers he'd ever attempted, but people could perform great feats when they feared for their lives.

The girl in question was sleeping in the back seat, or at least she appeared to be. Julian refused to be fooled, however. He wouldn't let his guard down for a second.

But regardless of that, it had been four and a half hours of utter silence (Logan hated the radio) and Julian was at his limit. He risked releasing the sleeping girl briefly to reach into his pocket for his Ipod. It was an older model, a first generation, and his most treasured possession. Every song and picture he'd ever had was stored in that little green device.

Naturally, Santo referred to it as his man-purse.

He pushed the ear buds in and turned it on quickly, before he went crazy from listening to nothing but road noise for the rest of the trip.

The soothing bass melody of one of his favorite rock tracks immediately put him at ease but it seemed to do the opposite for the van's other occupants. Laura stirred and peered into at him curiously. Wolverine glared.

"Will you turn that crap down?"

Julian checked the volume meter by rubbing his hand across the wheel. "It's at its lowest setting!" he lied.

"Well it sounds like a fuckin' concert to me! An' ya know how many rock concerts I've been to since eighteen fifty? Go on, ask me."

"How many?" Julian asked sighing resignedly.

"None! That's how many! So I _don't_ want one in my_ car_."

"If you've never been to a-" Julian began, ready to point out the gaping hole in Logan's logic, but Laura cut him off from behind them.

"I do not mind the rhythmic noise."

_Rhythmic noise?_

"What?" Logan sounded even more annoyed. "Great you've got something in common. Sit in the back with her and you can listen to it all you want. You can let her out of the chains now too, she ain't goin' nowhere."

"I will still kill him," Laura said pointedly.

"Oookaaay…don't let her out, yet."

But Julian had more than one problem with Logan's plan himself. "I am_ not _letting her evil murderer earwax get over my Skullcandy earbuds!"

"Oh, sorry, Keller, I forgot you were such a _pansy_."

Julian found a blush rise in his cheeks that had more to do with his company than Logan's jibe. It was one thing to be called a pansy by a man who couldn't be killed, it was another to be called that in front of a _girl_.

Even a creepy, murderous one, apparently.

"I am _not_ a pansy!" he protested. And though he was quite perturbed by the thought, he climbed into the backseat, moving Laura just enough to sit comfortably beside her, arms crossing his chest in a defiant pose. She turned her neck up at him, his focus so weak now that only her hands and legs were bound by his telekinesis. Her green eyes looked up at him with something briefly approaching sanity before it became more…feral.

_Snikt_

"Aah! Holy shit! Don't _do_ that!" Julian scooted across the seat, as far from her as he could get, holding his hand up defensively. He had almost wet himself as she extended her claws. Not that he'd ever let her _know_ that.

"You are afraid," she said evenly, her predatory gaze appraising him like a piece of meat. She sniffed the air once then nodded in satisfaction, retracting her claws. Julian had the presence of mind to notice that she had only two claws on each hand as opposed to Wolverine's three.

_Less to worry about_, he thought.

But Logan apparently thought something differently of that little exchange.

"Aww," he drawled. "She's taking your scents. She's goin sweet on you Keller."

"What? She almost made me piss my pants how the hell is that 'goin' sweet'?" He did his best impersonation of Logan's raspy tone for the last two words before realizing that he'd let her know exactly what he'd vowed not to seconds ago.

Logan frowned taking the question far less rhetorically than it was intended. "Let's see, its like memorizing a face I guess. You memorize the smells to know who a person is no matter what kind of mood they're in. 'Cause the pheromones change, see. Or somethin' like that, I don't really know how to 'splain it."

"Oh," Julian mocked. "I see, so when you're a _creep_ you do stuff like that I take it. My bad. _I_ didn't know."

Beside him, Laura quietly filed away the word 'creep' for future analysis. She had no idea what it meant but from the context it appeared to be similar to the compound word 'douchebag,' which she'd heard people use quite often since her escape from the facility.

The next few moments passed in relative silence, with Julian reluctantly pushing his free earbud into Laura's ear. He tried to ignore how soft her hair was as he brushed it out of the way and didn't quite succeed.

He set the Ipod to shuffle and pressed play, instantly nodding off to his own world and ignoring Laura's curious look. The music soothed the headache that was building behind his eyes.

Laura twitched against her telekinetic restraints, upset by the lyrics of the song. Especially the refrain. She usually didn't understand metaphors, but was almost sure that there was one present. After a few minutes, Laura rammed her shoulder into the dark-haired boy.

"Ah! What the-?" He leapt up, ready to defend his life, but she just looked at him with a curious expression.

"I was unable to gain your attention otherwise," She explained matter of factly. "I have a question."

He blinked. "What do you want?"

"Is this selection determined to display irony?" She was referring to the music. Right.

This genuinely puzzled him and he answered before he could think of a sarcastic remark. "I don't think so. The song's called The Running Free. Its talking about a hero who's dying or something. How is that ironic?"

Laura looked pensive for a moment as she listened to the lyrics. "No. I am sure it is discussing my current plight. I am bound by your telekenesis. How could I be running free?"

Julian smacked himself on the forehead. How could she be so _dense_?

"And furthermore, the-"

"Its got nothing to do with you, its just a song! God, you're slow, aren't you?"

Logan finally spoke up, tired of their conversation. "Laura, th song's not about you. I gotta explain all o' that later. An' shut your pie hole, Keller. Take her chains off, she really won't kill you. Its just a threat."

"Are you sure?" Julian appraised her unflinching stare.

"_Reasonably_ sure. On second thought… "

"I wish for ice cream," she interrupted, fixing Logan with a look that bordered on begging. It looked weird to Julian, though. She retained a certain sternness so it seemed like it was her last will and testament to have ice cream.

Logan sighed. "Alright, we can stop and get ice cream _if_ you don't kill him."

Laura made a small noise that Julian could only interpret as discontent.

"She didn't sound too happy about that….what kind of father are you anyway? You're hinging my life on her desire for ice cream!"

"Shutup Keller, its none of your damn business. Take the fuckin' chains off! I don't want her to feel like she's our prisoner."

"Right, because bringing me along to telekinetically kidnap her wouldn't give her that impression at all."

"Dammit, Keller, I'll kill you myself and say we ran into Sabretooth if you don't untie her!"

Julian obeyed reluctantly, reaching across her body as she dutifully offered up her arms for him to unfasten. His hands were shaking slightly. He wasn't a hardened X-man yet, willing and able to face death unflinchingly.

No, if death came, he'd flinch. And _hard _too_. _

He untied the last chain and Laura sniffed him again.

"What the heck! Stop doing that, freak!" he yelled, pulling off the last cuff. He realized the mistake of insulting her as he released her a split second too late and in the time he drew his next breath, she had grabbed his collar and threw him to the floor of the X-van, between the back of Logan's seat and the front of his own. She landed roughly on top of him, the chain still binding her ankles and extended her claws, ready to slash at his throat.

Unfortunately for them all, she extended them right through the back of the driver's seat and directly into Logan's posterior.

He howled in pain and the van swerved wildly, flinging Laura off of Julian as it went up on two wheels and began to tumble and roll.

Julian felt like he was in a pinball machine, falling to the floor, then the ceiling, then collapsing over the chair before being flung into the bulletproof windowpane on the door. Ironically, the first rays of sunlight broke the horizon just as the van rolled over, tumbling toward the eastern glow before it finally ground to a halt on its side.

Julian opened one eye (the other refused to open) to find himself atop an unconscious Laura in the wide open trunk of the van. Somehow the chains had come off her legs (probably something to do with the claws that were extending from between her toes) and she was laying spread eagled, with Julian in the most lewd possible position. He groaned in displeasure before passing out entirely.

…

"Keller," he heard a voice whisper in his ear. It was soft, and feminine, but had a clipped edge to it. An almost robotic quality, like there was no emotion behind the word whatsoever.

"Keller, you must wake up." A hand slapped him hard across the cheek. Julian's eye opened and light poured into his retina, making him flinch hard and squint to block it out. His Ipod lay in a corner, Seether shouting something about the eyes of the devil. A shadow hung over him. Long, silky black hair touched lightly on his cheeks. Laura's hair. Her unblinking green eyes stared deeply into his own, her face only inches from his. Her piercing emerald eyes.

"...The…eyes of the devil!" yelled Shaun Morgan.

Julian shrieked and shoved her back, scrambling to a sitting position before crying out again, this time in pain. Something glass had shattered, leaving shards all over the ground in the overturned X-van. Not that the ground was necessarily the floor of the van. It was currently on its side at the moment but Julian had just gotten part of the rearmost window in his butt.

He stood gingerly, trying to rub the glass out before he quickly abandoned that plan. He held up his shredded hands, blood dripping down his four hundred dollar sleeves and cried out in a loud voice.

"Why? Why is this happening to me?"

A small hole in the opposite window let a shaft of light through that illuminated him and only him as if some cosmic spotlight had shone on him. Laura quirked an eyebrow.

"Why is not relevant. We must save my original."

Julian blinked, turning away from his melodramatic display to regard her. "Your _what_?"

"Logan. He is my DNA original."

"That's an odd way to refer to your father," Julian puzzled, wondering why he was talking to this girl _at_ _all_. She had tried to kill him, gotten them into this accident by stabbing Wolvie in the ass, nearly impaled him on her claws as they tumbled around in the van and then had the nerve to slap him awake.

"Jesus…Saaaave me…" shrieked Shaun Morgan.

"That is irrelevant must hurry," she said, leaping through the hole she'd cut in the roof of the van. "Before authorities arrive. We have approximately…" she cocked her head to the side again, listening intently this time. "Eight minutes."

"How do you know that?" Julian asked, waddling forward.

"I have a sensory range of fourteen point four six two miles. Four police and one emergency vehicle have just entered my auditory range."

Julian ignored her weirdness and stared at the hole she'd cut. It was barely big enough for him to get through on a good day, let alone a day he had one eye swollen shut, a migraine that made it hard to balance a twig on a park bench, and fourteen individual shards of bulletproof glass literally stuck up his ass. He decided right then that he was definitely a favor of Wolverine and Colossus' brand of door opening. Big. Fucking. Hole.

"Do you mind?" he asked, gesturing to the incision.

Laura scoffed, slashing until the entire roof fell away.

"Is that orifice large enough?" It would have sounded snarky if she had any emotion whatsoever, but Julian had long since tuned her out.

"Great, where's Wolvie?" he asked, ignoring the traffic that was pouring around them. "Who's he fighting?"

She shook her head. "No one. He will die because of the accident if we do not remove the van from atop him."

Julian's face blanked briefly as he tried to comprehend this. "Doesn't he have a healing factor?"

Laura nodded. "Yes, but if something is wedged in his wound it will not heal and he will die of blood loss. Currently the car's axle had lodged itself in his abdominal cavity and gasoline is pouring into it. It will kill him in forty seven more seconds."

Julian had never been in a situation where someone's life was literally in his hands, but he'd never imagined it'd be like _this_.

"Wait, wait, wait," he said, holding up his bloodied hands. "You're telling me that he's been shot in the head." She nodded. "Smashed by Sentinels." Nod. "Boiled alive." Nod. "Set on fire and fallen from a skyscraper window." Nods. "Blown up more times than we can count and still he hasn't died, but _this_ is going to kill him?"

"I fail to see your reasoning."

"Its _funny_! That's the reasoning!" He was fully aware that he was being a complete dick by not moving the truck off Logan and _then_ laughing but he'd be okay for another thirty seconds or so. "He's been killed six ways to Sunday and he's gonna die because of a _car accident_?"

"I do not see the humor in my DNA original's impending doom."

"Fine," Julian scoffed, grabbing the van with his mind and tugging hard until it lifted several feet from the ground. His head roared in protest at such an overt use of his powers but Laura darted under it before Julian could say a word. A rather malicious thought passed through his pain-addled mind and were she and Logan not two of the last few hundred mutants on the planet, and was the view of her rear as she bent over to climb on her hands and knees not quite so exquisite, he might have simply dropped it back down and been done with the both of them.

But seconds later, Laura dragged an unconscious and bleeding Wolverine from beneath the van and flipped him onto her shoulders in a fireman's carry.

"We must escape," Laura exclaimed, and darted off into the interstate highway traffic.

"What the…you're _crazy_!" Julian yelled after her, dropping the van. He pushed his headache aside once more and floated over the cars to land beside her in the gravel along the side of the road. Several cars crashed behind him as they panicked at seeing the telekinetic mutant's green glow.

"Dammit," he muttered. "I didn't think about that…"

Julian heard a police siren in the distance. If they found mutants here, there would be no telling what would happen and Julian was cut off from his family council indefinitely. He couldn't even guarantee that _he'd_ be freed, let alone Wolverine, who probably had more arrest warrants written

in his name than the Unabomber.

No, that made his choice. Squinting his eyes to dull both the headache and the mental image of what was occurring to the traffic behind him, Julian wrapped Laura and Logan in a veil of green energy and lifted them into the air, slowly accelerating until they were flying fast and low over the northern New York forests. He angled away from the mansion, knowing the O*N*E Sentinels would blow him out of the sky if he got close.

After he'd traveled as far as he could he slowed down and dropped them, and the three of them tumbled and rolled to a stop in a soggy patch of mud.

"My _clothes_!" Julian moaned, lifting a ruined sleeve, as though it hadn't been tarnished by the rain, or the crash or his brief scuffle with Laura.

He rolled over to lay flat on his back, panting from his exertion. He glanced over at where Wolverine lay in an unconscious heap and looked up at the morning sky before doing a double take.

He just barely had time to think '_where's the girl_?' before a shadow descended over his prone form.

_Snikt_

"Whoa! Hold on!" he yelled throwing up his hands as she raised hers for the killing blow.

To his immense surprise, she did exactly that, freezing in position like a robot switched off at the last second. Only her deep, regular breathing evidenced the fact that she was alive at all.

"Why do you still want to kill me? I just helped you!" he protested, his mind racing and his head throbbing. He needed to get an aspirin before he had an aneurysm.

"It is in my mission parameters," was the girl's cool reply.

Hellion rolled to his feet, pushing himself up with a considerable effort. "Mission parameters? Who gives you missions anyway?"

"Your presence allows Logan to apprehend me. My current objective is to explore my inner psyche and find myself."

Julian blinked. "And how's that coming?" he sneered.

She seemed to miss the venom in his statement. Her answer was clipped and matter-of-fact. "I do not know how to find myself. I am right here and do not appear to be lost."

Julian's only response was to groan and clutch at his aching head. When was Logan going to wake up? "Look, I'll help you find yourself as long as you don't kill me."

This seemed to genuinely interest the girl and her face displayed some sort of emotion for an incalculably tiny fraction of a second. "Are you a telepath?"

"No," he replied, exasperated. "I'm a…psychiatrist."

"You are lying," she said flatly. "I can smell lies."

"What kind of a freak _are_ you?" Julian bellowed before glancing at Wolverine. "Oh… yeah…right. His daughter. Never mind that last question. Look, I said I'll help you as long as you don't kill me, deal? I can't even use my powers right now."

Laura tilted her head in that odd manner again. It seemed to be the only sort of behavioral quirk she knew how to express. "Is your power intermittent?"

"No," he replied, slightly offended. "What kind of a telekinetic would I be if I was only a mutant sometimes? I just have a massive freaking headache and I can't think straight."

"I do not understand," Laura replied.

Julian was spared from answering another inane question by a low moan from Logan, who was pushing himself up out of the mud.

"Dammit," was the mutant's first word. "Laura, I swear if the van is ruined I'll… Aw, shit. Where the hell are we?"

Logan glared at Julian, apparently fully healed already.

"Umm…see, its hard to explain cause you were gonna die and cops were coming and we had to-"

"Save it," Logan said, waving him off. "Just brainwave us back to the mansion."

"I_ so_ can't do that right now," Julian replied, scowling again. Logan really brought out the worst in him. "My head is _killing _me."

"I can remove it if it is a burden," Laura interrupted, gazing at Julian with something odd behind her sparkling green eyes. As if there was ever anything _normal_ there.

He was about to reply when his mind finally processed what she had said and his mouth opened and closed almost of its own accord. "Was that a joke?"

"No."

"Oh." He blinked. "_Oh_. Well, please don't, I'll need it when I get back to the mansion."

"Will you two shutup? We've got a long walk ahead of us. Green Lantern here dropped us about twenty miles from the Institute. I recognize this terrain from my morning jogs."

"Oh, so now I'm a comic book character?" Julian protested again, offended.

Neither of the two responded to him, both walking off in the desired direction and he followed, reaching into his pocket for his ipod.

"Wait, wait wait… We have to go back!" he exclaimed.

"For what, Keller? You leave your blankie? Or your _parasol_?" Logan chuckled to himself at his own joke.

"No, no, my Ipod!" he said, frantically yanking everything he had out of his pockets. Wallet, cell phone, gum packet. "Its not here!"

"I am listening to your rhythmic noise," Laura explained from in front of him, holding the device up so he could see it.

"No, no, no, get your earwax off my Skullcandys!" He yanked the ear buds out of her grasp. "These are noise cancelling! Do you have any idea how expensive they are? I seriously doubt you could replace them!"

"I have one hundred ninety four thousand dollars in my possession," she replied, as if this solved the issue.

Internally, Julian was staggered at the number. It was far more than his parents had ever trusted him with and they were _billionaires. _He squelched another question about exactly what she'd done to inherit such a sum.

"Money can't replace what's on that thing!" he said, snatching at it. Laura pulled it out of his grasp.

Laura thought back to her cousin Megan, remembering how she had regarded a boy rather aggressively when attempting to eat his nutritional supplements. She felt confident enough in her recollection to reenact the attitude Megan had demonstrated. _Snikt_. "I would like to listen to it. May I?"

"Laura, play nice," Logan said, waving at her from ahead of them. "You don't threaten people _and then_ ask them stuff. Its rude."

"That is how Megan handled a similar-"

"One or the other."

She nodded sagely at the advice and then lifted her claws to Julian's neck. "Then I would prefer threats. They are more effective."

Logan barely turned his head. "Laura, you are _not_ allowed to kill Julian. Or anybody for that matter. Keller, I suggest you do what she wants before she kills you."

"That doesn't even make sense!" Julian protested, thinking correctly that there was a violation of his constitutional rights somewhere in that sentence.

"It don't have to make sense. I don't like you on a good day Keller and _this ain't _agood day."

Laura looked expectantly at the earbuds, single-minded in her objective. Julian just smiled weakly and held them out to her and she took with something approaching a smile on her face.

"Creep," he muttered under his breath, walking forward and stuffing his hands into his pockets. "You're both creeps."

Wondering how he got stuck with the two oddest people on the planet, Julian walked in silence, vowing not to say another word until he was back and could tell this whole odd story to Santo and Cessily. They were about halfway home when Laura tapped him on the shoulder.

"I am unable to rectify a data loop in your device."

Julian heard _"Unable…rectify…blah blah…device."_

"What?" he said, promptly forgetting his vow to not speak to the creeps anymore.

"It has repeated the same pattern fourteen times," Laura said, poking at the scroll wheel with the tip of an adamantium claw.

"Hey! Stop that!" he cried, prying it from her grasp with a thought. He instantly regretted using his powers as the migraine came flooding back.

"You may fix the device and return it to me," she slowed her pace so she walked beside him to whisper, "Or I will kill you."

"Can't you think of any other threats?" Julian protested as he took the Ipod off of repeat. "Your imagination sucks."

She faltered, looking as if he'd insulted her for the first time before lowering her head and hurrying back to Logan's side, looking genuinely sad.

The rest of the walk passed that way and they arrived at the mansion just before noon. Logan sighed as he stepped through the doors into the blessedly cool air and Julian made a beeline straight for his room. He had to tell Brian about this whole experience and take a long shower and then lay down for about a week straight. The glass had come out of his butt somewhere during the mud episode, but it still hurt like hell and his eye was swollen shut. He opened the door to find Brian missing and his stuff packed and frowned sadly, stepping into the bath. He let the hot water rinse away the stress of the day, but found his mind oddly fixed on the girl.

"Aww hell," he moaned. "She still has my Ipod!"

…

Downstairs, Laura had followed Logan to his room, unsure of where to go.

"Come on, Laura, I'll take ya to Cyke and get ya checked in."

She nodded, but paused in his doorway. "Logan?" she asked, her voice tentative. "What is imagination?"


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

**Ice Cream... Run!**

Laura Kinney followed Logan away from the headmaster's office, taking in the sights, smells and sounds of the new Xavier Institute. It had been rebuilt since her last tenure there and there was a lot of unfamiliarity. The most common smell, however, was fear. It oozed from nearly every occupied room, clung to her nose and caused her senses to heighten in anticipation.

She didn't like the feeling.

"Yeah, its pretty different," Logan said quietly from in front of her. "Just a week ago it wasn't like this. Mutant kids everywhere. Now it seems too…quiet."

She said nothing, following his footfalls exactly so that her own were nearly imperceptible. A habit.

They arrived at a common area and Logan sniffed the air once to confirm its occupants before stepping forward and opening the door. A chair sailed through the air and brushed him lightly on the shoulder as the pair watched a blue-haired Japanese girl shoot electricity from her gauntleted hands at…Julian Keller. Laura felt her stomach twist in a rather novel fashion at the sight of him, but she said nothing. Instead, she yanked the expensive red headset out of her ears and stuffed it in her pocket.

"Am I interrupting something?" Logan asked the room. His gruff voice immediately silenced he commotion and everyone turned to look at him.

Julian landed, slamming his face into his palm. "Aww, great..."

Logan ignored him. "No? Good. This is Laura. My sister. She's a genetic clone made from my DNA and…" Even Logan could tell this long-winded speech was annoying him. "You know what? It doesn't matter. The bottom line is, she's got my claws, and _yes_ she could kill you if she wanted to. So don't make her want to."

There was a moment of shocked silence before Logan grimaced.

This wasn't going well.

"Consider yourself introduced," he muttered in closing as he turned and left with a reassuring pat on Laura's shoulder. She looked down after he left, unable to meet anyone's eyes. The only person she knew was Keller and she had no idea why his scent so clearly radiated '_disgust_' at the moment. A tiny part of her desperately hoped it didn't have anything to do with his repossessed Ipod.

People began filing past, clearly upset that their entertainment had been interrupted. Some of them offered friendly waves or hellos, they all kept their distance. They always kept their distance.

Several of the mutants exchanged biting words with Julian and Laura fought the urge to run away. It would not serve her to run in this circumstance, since everyone was leaving already. A giant golem of rock was the last to leave and then it was her and Julian. She looked up tentatively, meeting his eyes but saw only anger there.

"What are you looking at,_ clone_?" he spat.

Laura clamped down on the bile that rose in her throat at this and just looked away, hoping that they would leave soon. As soon as the room was empty she pulled the green ipod from her pocket and mashed a shaking finger against the play button, letting the sounds wash over her as she stilled her pounding heart.

* * *

><p>…<p>

Julian looked down at himself for the fourth time in as many minutes. He was now wearing a bright blue spandex suit with a large white 'x' across his torso. And a visor. _This is stupid,_ he thought as monsters began raining down on him from above.

"Julian watch it!" Cessily yelled.

" I've got-"

He turned to elbow one that was behind him but it was gone when he completed his spin. Laura was standing over the creatures dismembered corpse, her claws reflecting the strobing light in illusory patterns. Annoyance swelled up in him and he glared at her.

"Back off claws! I don't need anyone to rescue me!"

But no sooner had he made the claim than she darted around him and saved him yet again.

"I said stop doing that!" He yelled at her, now thoroughly embarrassed.

"Aww, she's sweet on you Keller!" Nori gloated, looking entirely too pleased at this turn of events.

"Funny, Aishida," Julian shot back as Laura continued to beat monster ass behind him. "Do you really want to get into this? If you haven't noticed, its four against two."

That shut her up, and almost immediately afterward, Santo apprehended Josh and David shut the whole machine down. Julian was once more dressed in his red and white hellions uniform and he glared at the mutants around. Brian was conspicuously absent again.

Julian glance behind him as the Hellions stormed off and saw Laura standing stock still, panting slightly from her exertion sweat matted her hair to her face and it hung in wet unattractive clumps, unlike the other day when it had been baby soft and smelled faintly of lavender. Something nudged at his consciousness and he forced himself to look away, wondering what he was forgetting before he got swept up into another argument.

* * *

><p>...<p>

Laura watched him go as she stood in the cavernous chamber, once again left behind after the heated flow of events. She wasn't liking this new arrangement much, she decided, heading upstairs to find Logan.

It took only a few minutes to find him polishing off his bike in the garage. Laura walked up behind him, her bare feet padding against the cool concrete.

"Hey, half-pint," he murmured, without looking up. "What's eatin ya?"

Laura tried to speak, but lost her voice just as quickly. There was so much she wanted to say, so much she wanted to tell him, about her day, about the strange monsters she fought in David Alleyne's chamber of secrets, about the way that Julian Keller treated her like dirt under his shoe. But all of it died in her throat.

Logan turned around, one eyebrow cocked quizzically. "What the hell was that? You just sounded like a cat getting run over by a lawnmower."

She stood there, frightened, unaware that she had made a sound at all. It took everything she had not to dive behind Scott's convertible and hide from him, father figure or no.

"Come on, Laura, what's goin on? How about we discuss it over ice cream? I never did get ya any."

"But there is ice cream in the kitchen," she protested, not understanding his logic.

"C'mon, how am I supposed to explain this to an emotionally scarred, hormonal teenager?" he asked no one in particular. It seemed as if he were talking to no one at all.

"You know what? Fuck you too, bitch," he muttered. Apparently it was a conversation only he could hear. He finally turned his attention back to Laura.

"Look, it aint about the ice cream, its about getting out of here one on one for a little while. You can go crazy all cooped up in here."

Laura finally nodded her consent and Logan finished tightening something on his bike and pulled out of the garage, beckoning for her to hop on behind him. She jumped on but not before he forced her to accept a helmet.

No sooner had he revved the engine than a blaring horn sounded, calling the X-men to assemble in the hanger.

"Aww, dammit," Logan swore, hopping off the bike. "We'll take a rain check. Can't catch a fuckin' break."

He hopped off the bike and Laura yanked the helmet off and threw it aside angrily. "I do not want it to rain."

"Aww, come on, Laura, that's not even what that means…"

But Logan's appeal made no difference and he threw his hands up in exasperation. "Look, how about we-" but he suddenly stopped, either hearing or smelling something Laura had missed.

"Gimme a second," he muttered, rushing toward the garage door.

She looked on with a defiant expression, determined to resist any plan he had concocted.

Logan marched to the door, following his ears to the excessively loud footfalls leading away from the dormitories. They were coming down stairs. They were turning down the hall. They were stomping past him right….

Now. Logan reached out from behind some statue of something that might be called art and snatched the stomper by his collar.

"Shit."

"Ah! Aw, shit."

"Keller."

"Mr. Logan."

The two regarded each other for a brief minute before the elder man plowed ahead. "I need a favor," he muttered, finally releasing Julian.

The boy's blue eyes flared angrily. "I'm busy!" he protested.

"Doing what?" Logan shot back, smelling the lie before it was even uttered. "Stompin'? No, you're gonna do as yer told!"

He affixed his hand to Julian's shirt once more and dragged him outside to the bike, seeing Laura's eyes widen at the sight. She hadn't been expecting this, but she observed carefully how the boy protested and fought vainly against Logan's iron grip.

He was weak, bred from a life of privilege. His muscles were well defined, but they lacked the hardness of sinews strengthened in mortal peril. His eyes were determined and strong, but lacked the dull fire possessed by the experienced warrior. His face was chiseled and his jawline had an appealing set to it, especially when he pushed up his chin defiantly, but it was too recognizable, he was too easily identified to be invisible after a kill.

No, he was unsuitable in every way, but it didn't stop her eyes from roaming his tight abs through the thin fabric of his red and white shirt, nor did it stop her body from heating up well below her waist and she waged a silent war to keep her pheromones in check.

"Laura, you remember Keller," Logan began, narrowing his eyes at her suspiciously.

_Crap._ _He smelled it_. Silently cursing her body's endocrine system, she nodded, not meeting his gaze.

"Well, _Keller,_" Logan tightened his grip on the boy and forced him in front of her. "Is going to take you to get your ice cream. I've got a mission and I really can't stay and chat."

Julian tried one last feeble protest, but finally just nodded grudgingly. "I hope you don't expect me to pay it. I was only a billionaire last year."

"Shut it Keller," Logan said, digging a few bills from his pocket and stuffing them in his hand.

He jogged off, leaving them standing awkwardly close. Julian finally sighed, stuffing the bills into a pocket and started off toward the mansion.

Laura watched him go, a depression building in the pit of her stomach with every step he took. She found herself unable to walk away, however, and sat on the seat of Logan's bike. She picked up the helmet she had discarded earlier, fiddling with it idly.

Turning it over, she saw a reflected green glow and looked up sharply. Julian floated slowly toward her, wearing more normal clothing than his red Hellions uniform; stylish denim jeans and a t-shirt advertizing his favorite band with a plain black sweater.

She was reminded of the Ipod and handed it to him guiltily as he landed.

He took it, turning it over in his hand as if expecting to see it damaged.

"It is broken," she blurted before he could find out for himself.

He stared at it for a second longer, eyes hard before he stuffed it in his pocket. "Whatever, let's get this over with."

She followed him off the campus letting him lead the way into the small Massachusetts town.

"So is ice cream really that important?" He finally asked.

She said nothing, instead watching a man dressed in silver clothing with silver paint covering every other part of his body pretend that he was a robot. Her eyes lit up, and while she didn't understand why, she found his jerky movements to be quite amusing.

She finally stopped, standing in the small crowd that was congregating, much to Julian's chagrin.

Before long, she began to notice several small inconsistencies in his movements and pointed them out.

"Your imitation of a mechanical meta-human is flawed," she said, shocking the gathered crowd. "Robots are much more stiff in their metacarpal digits and there is a slight natural concavity in your lumbar vertebrae that is absent in artificial skeletons."

The crowd had gone silent save for a loud groan by a certain Hellion.

"Fine," the man said in a heavy Boston accent, abandoning all pretense. "If you know so much then why don't yous do betta?"

He flipped his top hat to her casually and she plucked it deftly from the air, settling it onto her head easily. Striding confidently to his makeshift stage, she stepped up, her movements suddenly jerky and erratic.

Julian stared in horror as she performed the Robot flawlessly, even making a slight whirring sound as she moved. But something about the way she moved seemed oddly familiar. He tried to shake off the feeling of déjà vu as she raised her right hand, palm facing the crowd and fingers splayed perfectly evenly.

"Regenerative event in progress," she quoted, her face blank and unfeeling. "Compensating…"

Julian sighed heavily as many of the people around began to recognize the odd patterns in her behavior and speech.

"She's a sentinel!" one overeager kid yelled.

"I am not," she replied in her clipped monotone. "I am a mutant."

She popped her claws to prove it.

Panic ensued.

People ran every which way, dragging bystanders and onlookers alike into a full blown evacuation.

Julian stood stock still protecting himself with at telekinetic shield and watching as the street performer boldly snatched his silver hat back before dashing away himself.

In less than a minute police arrived, their sirens giving them away before they rounded the corner and the first of them aimed squarely at Julian. "Freeze Mutie!" he hollered from the safety of his armored car door.

Julian did no such thing, flipping the bird at the officer from the safety of his telekinetic bubble.

Laura turned to look at the police. "No x-gene detected. Threat, minimal."

"Will you stop it?" Julian yelled at her. This would be the second time in two days that he would have to run from the cops due to this girl and she was still playing sentinel.

He couldn't find the words to express his frustration and resorted to gesticulating angrily. "The guy already took his hat back!"

She turned around, hopping down casually from the podium as if she hadn't just started a riot.

"I believe these people harbor resentment to our kind," she told Julian as a bullet pinged off of his shield.

"Ya think?" he shot back, grabbing her in a mental embrace and lifting into the air. He sorely hoped none of the O*N*E sentinels would pick up his exertion. They were less than a mile away from the institute after all. Setting them both down on a roof as quickly as possible.

"How are we supposed to get ice cream _now_?" he asked idly, sitting down on the roof as police called for their surrender with a bullhorn.

Laura stared unflinchingly. "There is ice cream in the kitchen."

"Yeah, no shit," he replied. "Today _sucks_."

Laura sat opposite of him and twiddled her fingers embarrassedly. He pulled the ipod from his pocket and stared at the blank screen, sighing heavily. "You owe me a new Ipod."

Laura said nothing.

"I mean, I can't believe you broke this thing," he said, leaning back so he was staring at the sky. "First Aishida, then that stupid cave and Brian ran off, you almost impaled my junk, and Sofia…"

He heard a slight crunch of gravel underfoot and looked up to see that Laura was gone.

_That quickly huh?_ _Ah well_, he thought, levitating himself off the back of the building and landing several blocks away. _I'm_ _pretty sure_ s_he can take care of herself._ He pulled the hood of his sweater over his head to give himself some semblance of a disguise and headed back to the mansion in solitude. And he had no intention of giving Logan back his money.

That evening, he sat awake late into the night, staring at his laptop screen and thinking about his fight with Sofia. Brian was asleep in his bed and he didn't want to wake him by playing Rock Band or Call of Duty all night. For some reason, each time the brunette's face swam into his vision, a pair of curious emerald eyes would interrupt his thoughts, taking them in a completely new direction. On a whim, he took the Ipod out of his pocket and plugged it into the computer. The screen flashed the 'empty battery' signal and began charging. Julian slapped a hand on his forehead, exasperated.

_Seriously, who _is _this girl?_


End file.
